The Top Ten Commandments of the Capsuleer Parent

Every EVE Online player who became a parent during his capusleer career, knows how difficult it can sometimes be to juggle a professional career, a marriage and children, while giving in to the calling of New Eden. But with time, through sheer effort and good planning, it can be done. I know, I've struggled myself to manage to do all of the above, but I'm still here, playing the game, blogging about it and having a great time doing it, despite the occasional trolls!

How do I do it? Well over time I've come up with a few basic rules that seem to work for me. And so I wanted to share them with you, and see what you yourselves can come up with!

1. Thou shall put real-life first. Always!
2. Thy children shall always come before the pod
3. Nighttime shall become my best friend
4. Thou shall master the art of flying a ship while changing a diaper
5. A game schedule thou shall agree upon with thy better-half
6. Thou shall learn the EVE Bushido of the Parent Warrior
7. EVEMon shall be installed on every PC I can come in contact with
8. Thou shall know all the ins and outs of of the EVE Skill Planner
9. ...
10. ...

I didn't want to finish the list, not because I ran out of steam or ideas, but simply because I want you to add the last two! Come on!

The end is the beginning of something new...

I have played. I have blogged. I have podcasted. I have done all those things and more. I have lived through the day and seen the shadow of night set its blanket over the horizon. But I have seen the light. I know that a new dawn lies ahead of the darkness of night. And it will rise again.

He who has never fallen, will never know the meaning of standing.

Okay, cut the romantic prose, and get to the point you may be asking. What the hell is he talking about?

I'm talking about this blog. About the game. And mostly about continuity.

I've been blogging about gaming and EVE Online for over 4 years now. At first it was a minimal; a post a month. Then I got more into it. Then it became a habit. Then a passion.

But when you pour your heart and soul into something you eventually run the risk of forgetting what it is you were doing in the first place, and why you were doing it. And the it all comes crashing down.

Then they start to point the finger at you. They start to say that you're a quitter. That it's the beginning of the end.

Then you say the hell with'em! You raise a knee and push your self back up, and dust your self up. You look around. See what you've accomplished and get back on the train.

You may think I'm writing this to explain myself. To justify my absence. I'm not. I'm simply standing back up, dusting myself, and getting back on the train.

Life's not planned. It throws curved balls at you. Some you're able to avoid, some not. But you go on. You persevere.

Blogging is similar.

The end is the beginning of something new... ...it's good to be back!

EVE Blog Banter #4: The Game with the Thousand Faces

Welcome to the fourth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by yours truly. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
This month's EVE Blog Banter comes to us from Manasi of A Mule in EvE. Manasi asks "How do we, EVE bloggers, adapt to changes as they are thrust upon us (speed changes, no more ghost training, all the Dev blogs, etc), or as our lives make playing the game different (more time, less time)?"

Here's my attempt to answer question.

Life, ever changing, always in evolution. And so it is with gaming. Even more so with EVE.

I've been playing EVE Online for almost 5 years now, and over the years so many changes were incorporated into the game that it would most likely feel completely alien if we were to jump back into the game as it was in 2003-2004. And I'm not talking about the content like new ships, new modules, new missions and what not. No, even the way we play the game has changed. Any of you old timers remember the dozens of bookmarks we had per system in order to jump at 0 km near a gate or station.

The list could go on and on and on.

You still with me here?

As with many EVE Bloggers the end of the year has seen me very busy with RL (and work). I'm writing this during my lunch break, while at work. Over the last few days, I've managed to get a few hours in EVE, but at the price of not making last Friday's EVE Speedlinking post. A guy can have some fun n'est-ce pas?
No worries though, as I've decided to post the last speedlinking post of the year this week, on the last day of 2008.

Looking back at my posts over the last year, I've decided to focus a bit more on my game play over the coming year. I'll try to get back to a more personal point of view with EVE as I really enjoyed the feedback I got. Of course, I will continue maintaining the EVE Blogroll, Blog Pack and Blog Banter, as well as get back to a regular schedule for my podcasts.

Expect to see more daily posts over the next few weeks!

See you in space!

Time enough to fly

The last few weeks have been so busy that I've barely had time to spend playing EVE. A while back I had a poll on the number of hours one spends playing EVE in a week. The poll is still up there (on the top right). The idea had come after reading a great article from Robin Torres over at Massively entitled "Gamer Interrupted: You can be a great parent, spouse and gamer".
As a new dad, I'm currently struggling to find the right schedule for me. One where I'm able to dedicate as much of my time to my daughter, to my wife, to work, while finding time to play EVE and enjoy my other hobbies. It hasn't been easy and I'm still working on that schedule. As a result, EVE time has been going down lately. Before becoming a dad, I used to play EVE a good 20-30 hours a week with relative ease. These day it's more like 5-10, and the last two weeks even less. True that it's the end of the year, and I'm swamped at work. So I'm hopeful things should calm down soon and I should be able to get back to a more normal pace.

As for EVE, and the new Trinity upgrade, I took these shots last night, after finally being able to sit a few hours and enjoy the new graphics. There should be more of these soon, as well as an update on the Rags to Richies contest. I owe you one Drew!